In keeping with Session’s desire to develop a greater focus for our mission activity the Session, acting on a recommendation from the Personnel Committee, has granted me a month long Mission Study Leave and resources from a special fund to travel and visit with congregations around the country who are doing interesting mission programs.
I will be away from Fairmount from Monday, January 20th - Friday, February 14th. During that time I will be visiting congregations in San Francisco, CA, Atlanta, GA, Greenville, SC, Ashville, NC, Baltimore, MD, Washington DC, and Philadelphia, PA, and Youngstown, OH. I will also be spending some time with the Presbyterian Hunger and Peacemaking programs at our national headquarters in Louisville, KY.
The point of these visits isn’t to get blueprints for what works in other congregations, but to gain insight into methodologies and best practices used to identify congregational mission efforts and to engage members in living out the mission of Jesus Christ in our own context. I will make an brief initial presentation during the Annual Meeting on Sunday, March 2nd at which time I will invite all who are interested to gather for a more detailed presentation about the results of my conversations with these other congregations and to begin a wider conversation about where we feel the Spirit of Christ calling us to make a difference in the world.
I am deeply grateful for this time, for the opportunity I will have to enjoy a different pace and to engage in different kinds of conversations that will fill me up for our road ahead. We will have a lot to talk about after I get back. I look forward to those conversations I hope will help us to be the difference Cleveland needs right now.
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